Glider electrics etc

At 00:24 06 February 2020, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Wed, 05 Feb 2020 22:06:34 +0000, Tim Newport-Peace wrote:

At 19:52 05 February 2020, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Wed, 05 Feb 2020 18:04:13 +0000, Benedict Smith wrote:

At 16:34 05 February 2020, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Wed, 05 Feb 2020 14:29:32 +0000, Tim Newport-Peace
wrote:
.

I realise having an inline Belling-Lee connector isn't ideal, the
more so
as it only connects to a 50cm extension with a BNF plug on the
radio end.

This setup was in the Libelle when I bought it, seems to work
OK, and so
it has stayed there. The short extension is necessary because
otherwise
the cable wouldn't reach the radio, let alone allow the panel to
slide
out far enough to connect or disconnect it from the radio.

I've thought about replacing it, but the free end of the original
cable
is in under the front coaming, too short to reach daylight. I'm
not keen
on making a solder joint in there, which would probably be no
better
electrically than leaving the Belling-Lee in place. Last but not
least, I
don't fancy pulling and replacing the entire cable either.


--
If the connector doesn’t need to come apart then you could simply
wrap
it in a couple of turns of self amalgamating tape, that would be
totally
waterproof and airtight, also it can be cut off if you did need to
disconnect it.
Ben.

Sounds good to me. Thanks.

--
Martin | martin at Gregorie | gregorie dot org


I have always prefered Internally-Glued Heat-Shrink over Tape.

But getting back to the original posting, we should never recommend
Belling-Lee and only use where there is no alternative.

Tim Newport-Peace
http://www.newportpeace.co.uk/icom.htm

Agreed - obviously an extra 50cm of uncut cable with just a BNF on the
end would be a lot better, but, as I said, I really don't want to mess
about with soldering etc in mid-air on a piece of cable that comes out
near the front end of the right side instrument panel support channel.

However, if you can point me at a description of how to to use
'Internally-Glued Heat-Shrink over Tape' after, presumably, soldering the

internal wire ends together, that would be interesting to know. Would it
be easier than making upo some sort of clip to lock the B-L halves
together?

I had in mind sleving the Belling Lee with Heatshrink and the internal glue
will seal to the outer of the co-ax eat each end. That should be
moisture-proof. I would Never suggest splicing co-ax.

However, another possible solution would be to use:
https://tinyurl.com/tseyff8 or similar. No Soldering required.

I don't particularly like these, but I like Belling Lee even less. At least
you will be using a 50Ohm connector which is moisture proof.


Tim Newport-Peace
http://www.newportpeace.co.uk/icom.htm

On Thu, 06 Feb 2020 11:38:38 +0000, Tim Newport-Peace wrote:

I had in mind sleving the Belling Lee with Heatshrink and the internal
glue will seal to the outer of the co-ax eat each end. That should be
moisture-proof. I would Never suggest splicing co-ax.

Ah Ha! A simple fix that never occurred to me.
Sticky heat-shrink ordered.
Thanks.

--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

At 13:28 06 February 2020, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Thu, 06 Feb 2020 11:38:38 +0000, Tim Newport-Peace wrote:

I had in mind sleving the Belling Lee with Heatshrink and the internal
glue will seal to the outer of the co-ax eat each end. That should be
moisture-proof. I would Never suggest splicing co-ax.

Ah Ha! A simple fix that never occurred to me.
Sticky heat-shrink ordered.
Thanks.

--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

Don't be in too much of a hurry. Let the warmer weather(?) dry out any
moisture present or you will just be sealing the moisture in ;¬)

Tim Newport-Peace
http://www.newportpeace.co.uk/icom.htm

Are you talking about a a disconnect on a wire going to a GPS antenna ?
Sorry about my ignorance regarding anything electrical.
Dan

On Thu, 06 Feb 2020 07:50:40 -0800, crosscountryboxco wrote:

Are you talking about a a disconnect on a wire going to a GPS antenna ?
Sorry about my ignorance regarding anything electrical.

No, we're talking abut the radio antenna.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

Thanks !
What about cutting and reconnecting (quick disconnect) the GPS antenna wires. What connector would you use ?
Dan

On GPS antennae, for what it's worth:

I opened a GPS puck antenna used for my PowerFlarm Portable, unsoldered
the wires, cut the coax to the required length and soldered the center
conductor and shield to the correct locations. I often had GPS dropouts
on the Flarm.Â* I recently removed that antenna and, using the internal
antenna on the portable unit, have had no more drop outs.Â* Just sayin'...

On 2/6/2020 10:32 AM, wrote:
Thanks !
What about cutting and reconnecting (quick disconnect) the GPS antenna wires. What connector would you use ?
Dan

--
Dan, 5J

At 17:32 06 February 2020, wrote:
Thanks !
What about cutting and reconnecting (quick disconnect) the GPS antenna
wires. What connector would you use ?
Dan

Certainly NOT Belling Lee.

GPS uses a much higher frequency and you can't afford to take liberties.

The connector to use depends on the cable size. Be guided by the connector
than connects the antenna to the GPS receiver.

On Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:32:50 -0800, crosscountryboxco wrote:

Thanks !
What about cutting and reconnecting (quick disconnect) the GPS antenna
wires. What connector would you use ?

I suppose that depends on what you're connecting the GPS antenna to and
what sort of connection it uses.

My RedBox FLARM has a BNF socket for the GPS puck connection. The
supplied puck had way to much wire for my installation, so I cut the wire
on a Gilsson puck down to 150mm (6") and soldered a right-angle BNF plug
onto it. The FLARM system works perfectly.

OTOH my EW logger uses a small brass? gold-plated? screw-on antenna
connection. I didn't have ant replacements, so this time I wound the
excess cable up into a neat 'donut' secured with a couple of cable ties,
clipped the supplied ferrite core over the logger end, connected it all
up and again it works very well.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org

On Thursday, February 6, 2020 at 11:32:52 AM UTC-6, wrote:
Thanks !
What about cutting and reconnecting (quick disconnect) the GPS antenna wires. What connector would you use ?
Dan

Dan,

It might be OK to shorten the GPS antenna's coax cable at the puck end (if you are particularly handy with a small tipped soldering iron) - but better to just loosely wrap up the excess cabling. The other end of the cable has the tricky and tiny SMA or MCX coaxial connectors which (unlike BNC and TNC connectors) requires some rather special expertise and tooling.

As to your idea of "cutting and reconnecting (quick disconnect) the GPS antenna wires [really coax]" I would give a definitive NOT. The beauty of coax is that the outer shield protects the very small signal from interference riding on the inner conductor. Cutting the cable to properly insert a COAXIAL quick disconnect connector on the thin coax can interfere with that protection and is difficult to properly accomplish to say the least. Commercially made quick disconnects of this size are available from Craggy Aero (FLARM only?).

My US$0.02.

John DeRosa OHM